Black and grey dotwork tattoo on a lower leg showing a cat reaching up towards a ringed planet held on a chain by a hand, set within a dotted geometric panel.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Cat and planet on a calf

Dotwork · Calf · Black and grey · Photo

A cat is shown from behind, reaching upward with one paw towards a ringed planet hanging from a chain held by a hand at the top of the design. The background is filled with fine stippled dotwork that shades into a solid black outline, framing the subject in a large angular shape. The tattoo is entirely black and grey, with smooth shading on the cat's fur and crisp contrast against the pale skin.

Dotwork Calf Cat Hand Chain Planet Paw

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Ada Pell sold tickets at Ferrier Cross from a booth lit by one oil lamp, and from its ceiling hung a brass ringed planet on a length of fine chain. Her brother had bought it from a travelling man in Carlisle, who said it turned as the earth did, though it had never turned right for anyone. The station cat, a grey and cream tom the porters called Mister Fenn, was not allowed inside the booth.

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Each evening after the last up train, Ada lowered the planet on its chain so the cat could bat at it through the grille. He sat on the sill and reached, and she let it swing just beyond his paw. The porters said she was cruel. She said the chain was the only thing in Ferrier that went up and down without anyone pulling it, and a cat should have one thing to want.

One November night the chain snagged on a hook and would not come down. Fenn stretched as high as he could, claws out, and the planet swung against his foot. He did not take it. He sat back on his haunches, looked at her a long while, and went out into the rain toward the goods yard.

The next morning the chain lay coiled on the sill with the planet resting on top. Ada never hung it up again. She kept it in the drawer under the ticket stamps, and every night she still checked the sill, in case he had changed his mind about wanting it.